Fathers' Day Autocross 2014 Breakdown (Pt. 2)

In Part 1 of the series, we examined a turn by turn look as we walk the course before the event to get a feel for the layout.  In Part 2 we'll examine the side by side video of how everything actually went down:

The differences between the two drivers is very subtle in these videos, but there are a few key items that were done better on either side of the frame.  If this was wheel to wheel racing it would get pretty dramatic and there would most likely be more body damage than the team would like to pay for, so we've voted to keep autocrossing for now!

Let's reference the top-down map again and follow on through the video...

Off the line we see both drivers get a good start through the timing lights (1), but Brian holds off shifting into 2nd gear slightly longer to gain and carry more speed through the quick left (2), right hand sweeper (3) and down through to the first hard braking zone (4). We're at 15 seconds in now and though Brian is applying the brakes harder, he's still too late and runs wide through the tight right hander (4) where Bob is more smooth and comes around the corner (5) quicker and on a better line allowing him to start accelerating sooner than Brian as they come down to the tight left hand hairpin together at 23 seconds (6).

Coming out of the hairpin (6), Brian again struggles with understeer from braking too late and runs wide.  Bob runs a better line around the corner but Brian refuses to let up on the throttle and muscles the car around the right hander (7) and finally catches Bob again as they plunge down hill (8) into a big sweeping left hand turn (9).

Heading back up the hill through the sweeping left turn still (9), Brian carries a little more speed but predictably cannot slow the car early enough in the tight right hand corner (10) at 38 seconds.  Bob accelerates out of the corner more quickly and continues to more smoothly carry speed as the drivers round the final left hand turn (11) which delivers more speed and launches the #77 car up the hill (12) and across the line 0.2 seconds before Brian (and without touching a single cone).